Forum Posts Feed
Tell us about your book
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Paul Korm
Nov 30, 2017 at 07:17 PM
No books, but I write approximately 150,000 words/year for clients (IT strategy, mainly). So that’s sort of counts as a couple or three books per year for the past few decades. All planned out in Tinderbox and Curio, source material in DEVONthink, and written 90% with Word—because I’ve habitually used Word, clients use Word, and no one wants anything written in Pages or other fringe applications.
Posted by jaslar
Dec 1, 2017 at 10:42 PM
I wrote a weekly newspaper column for about 25 years (at two different jobs). When I left my last job, someone suggested printing them all out. But that would have been 7,000 pages. (I calculate less than half that: 500 words times 52 weeks times 25 years divided by 200 words per printed page.)
But let’s be real: it’s big, but it’s not a book. Or if it were, I am sad to say that few would buy it. (*I* wouldn’t buy it!) I did archive them online.
But writers might find this of interest: I studied up on what makes a successful column. It was remarkably clear:
1. Start with a personal anecdote. This builds an emotional relationship with the reader. 1 to 3 brief paragraphs.
2. Shift to whatever your topic is. People are intrigued by that expansion. 1 paragraph transition.
3. Lay out the core topic. 3 to 5 paragraphs.
4. Be believable. Ground your conclusion not in a flurry of facts. One solid, verifiable truth. 1 paragraph to nail it.
5. Loop it back to the start. There is a great aesthetic satisfaction in tying it all together. Surprise people with the reinforcement of original anecdote with the point.
This works for all kinds of stuff. Sermons. Political speeches. Blogs. Just…stories.
That’s off topic, I realize. But I hope it was useful.
Posted by J J Weimer
Dec 4, 2017 at 02:11 AM
Hello. This is my first post after a lot of background reading.
I’ve not had a book published, although I’ve been a co-editor on one. I’ve had close to 50 journal articles published as well as a ton of lecture notes, homework problems and solution keys, and associated documents for higher-ed courses in science/engineering. My tool of choice since the late 1980’s has been LaTeX. Those were the days using a VAX system and preparing figures as hard copies on transparency paper in photo-ready format. I’ve since moved to PDFs generated using science/engineering programming (Maple, Igor Pro), basic layout/drawing apps (Curio), and citation management (Papers3/BibTeX) on macOS. I am experimenting with (and have not quite decided whether or how to implement) DevonThink. As a test case for this, I have a first-year graduate text on materials science in an ongoing stage of preparation, with a (somewhat open) goal to submit this coming summer.
I have enjoyed reading the range of comments on various topics here. I have on numerous occasions taken side trips to a Website of this or that app solely because someone on this forum recommended or commented on it. I must say that I thank everyone who has posted in that way for providing such a treasure in itself. The allure to CRIMP is in me. I tend however to get frustrated or bored quickly with apps that I don’t grok in a few sessions (and the Taurus in me keeps me stubbornly pinned to the tools that I know well even when I suspect that something else might be better). I prefer instead to meander around inside various tools for scientific/engineering programming, with python currently on my plate.
Posted by Larry Kollar
Dec 10, 2017 at 12:39 AM
Oh, you had to open *that* can of worms, eh? :-D
I have about a dozen books on Amazon. The big seller is a fantasy series, but there are others. Most of the fiction is geared for teens, but there’s a two-book series that qualifies as New Adult.
Scrivener is the central component in my toolchain. Instead of CRIMPing, I’m constantly tweaking my processes, trying to squeeze more efficiency out of the publishing end so I can spend more time writing. Scrivener’s MultiMarkdown support has been a huge help there, and that feeds some back-end scripts that can get me to EPUB or PDF in a matter of minutes. I need to write a script to do them both at once. It wouldn’t take long.
I haven’t updated to Scriv 3 yet, but plan to do it this weekend. Like tonight, maybe tomorrow evening.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Dec 10, 2017 at 01:37 PM
Thanks, everyone, for sharing. As I suspected, lots of impressive work!
Steve Z.